JonasB

Buddies

None so far

13 posts in 810 days

Location: IllinoisWebsite:

Been a dabbler woodworker for awhile mostly limited by workshop space and time. Since retiring the time has become less of an issue and I recently moved my workshop to a larger room in my basement so space is becoming less of an issue as well. The new space is still being organized and of course I am picking up or making some more stuff to fill it. Just added my first bandsaw a Laguna 1420, and upgraded my drill press a 1947 Walker Turner 900 I picked up for $129. Really good shape, but the drill table weighed in at 40 lbs, so moving the table up or down was impossible. One of my first projects was adding a screw lift mechanism to move the drilll press table around. My next major organizational project is building a workbench. Bought a used end vise and built my own face vise using a chain mechanism and a linear bearing. I call it my belt and suspenders vise. I made the chain system and handscrew from piece part hardware from the hardware store and ebay. I am in the final stages of construction. Will probably start a blog on this since others might be interested in the things I learned in my somewhat minimalist non standard approach.

Parallel guide chain mechanism
To make the chain mechanism, I used #35 chain and the sprockets are 10T with a 3/8 center. The chain is attached using two chain links. I had to do some metal working to create a few items: the brackets to hol...

Screw assembly
The face vise screw mechanism is all DIY. Here are the piece parts. The hand-wheel has been kicking around my basement for 15 years. I remember buying it on Ebay for a project I never completed. It was too nice to throw a...

Top Assembly
The top consist of two sub-assemblies: The lower half and the upper. The lower half is made up of two plywood sheets glued together, edged with maple and joined using doweled bridle joints. The doubled up plywood is attache...

Leg Assembly
Two leg assemblies are part of the support system for the bench. I was going to use glued up 2×4s, but found some 12/4 poplar, so sawed that to shape instead. The legs are 2.75” thick and 4” wide, and the top rail is 2.75...

So I decided I needed to finally build a real woodworking bench for my new workspace. I got all the books by Chris Schwarz, checked all the back issues of woodworking mags and browsed the internet in preparation. Then the first thing I did was...